WAR = IGNORANCE?

It's splashed in the front page of every major newspaper: Israel VS Hizbollah, a.k.a. Syria's sidekick.

Sometimes it just makes one wonder, how many wars would it take for people to realize that both parties would turn out losers at the end? Billions are spent each time there is a major war, & what is the point of winning one anyway? Is it to prove the supremacy of your latest missile technologies & nukes? Is it to prove that your race & religion is superior to the one that has just lost the war? Or is it to trample & sit on the dignity of their own fellow human race?

Terrorists are spawned from the vengeance of the oppressed. How many of you could actually sit idle when the basic of your beliefs has been attacked by some people whom you regard as terrorists yourself? It is amazing to see how those so called 'superpowers' of the world, despite the reputation of having some of the world's top brains in various fields, fail to recognize this point. War is absolutely not the solution to these territorial disputes. If there's money to be spent on bombarding each other's territories, I'm pretty sure it can be put to better use by sending humanitarian gifts to each other.

Why are those money not spent on bettering the lives of millions of their people & instead wasted on destroying the lives of millions of others? I can never understand the reasoning behind this...

Let's hope we'll find a great world leader who can unite the realm and also be understanding enough to resolve any issues through peaceful dialogues, & not by destroying whoever opposes its way. Until then, our prayer goes to the civilians of both countries, hoping that the gaping wound of war will not hurt and spark them to do even more horrible things for revenge..

My 2nd mom

I spent a week at Indo when my aunt came over for holiday with my younger cousins. They are living at another city in my province, & despite the short travel distance, I’ve not seen her for more than 2 years already. Yet, I knew that nothing has changed since the time she left, which was more than 5 years ago already.

Memories came flooding back as we chatted through midnights. She used to stay with us before she got married, & I was probably only 2-3 years old then. My early recollection of her probably began when I was around 5 years old, which was when she moved out just a few rukos (shophouses) down the street. She still visited us often because she was very close to my mom, and to us (the kids) as well.

I remember I was really naughty as a kid, & my mom also said I often chased away my playmates! There were lots of occasions when my parents would take out canes & rattan feather dusters (yes, those are really painful!) when I did something wrong, & every time before that happens my aunt would be running down the street to save my as*. I can’t recall how she always managed to get wind of my impending disaster, but as far as I can think back she was always there to rescue me, shielding me from my mom’s canes, & sometimes my dad’s leather belts! Violent family, I know, but hey I think the kids in my family turned out pretty good in the end! (though I won’t advocate the use of violence on my kids next time..). She’d take the hits sometimes just so that my parents would stop, & each time she would then calm me down & take me out if I was crying.

This continued for several years throughout my primary school days, & each time something happens she would be there to get me out. Even after she had kids of her own, she still continued to care for me, just like before. However, I didn’t really understand how much she doted on me then, & I definitely wasn’t aware of the love she had for us.

Her house was burnt down in an accident later and her family decided to relocate to another city. It was after she moved that I realized she was an important part of my family’s life. I remember feeling so lost, even though I was already studying in sg by then. Still, the familiar face that I’ve taken for granted all those years has been taken away from me, & I realized that I won’t be seeing her when I go back for school holiday.

The thing that amazes the most is that not only our relationship has not eroded through the distance, but instead it has grown stronger over all these years. We speak on the phone regularly, & despite her family situation (her husband lost his business & has since only found a low-paying job), she always had time for me whenever I need her advice. Even though she has not even completed primary school before, I never once had problem communicating with her about the many ideas I had, & she always had the advices ready for me, as if she had pre-empted my thoughts!

We have shared tears, laughter, joy, pain, & anything else a person could possibly ever conceive. This time during one of our midnight chats, she cried when we were talking about something that was very sensitive to her, & yet she kept advising me to stay in good terms with that very person that made her tears flow each time. I told her that any other time I would have listened to her, but there is no way that I would ever address that person again. Not after what that person has done to her, my mom & my other aunts.

Sad stuff aside, the rest of the week was spent visiting my youngest cousin. She’s so adorable (I’ll post up a pic of her next time!) & I think she looks like Shin-Chan, even though my aunt would be angry every time I said that because she didn’t think it was a compliment at all! I could genuinely see her love for my cousin, just like what she had for me when I was a kid.

All the money in the world couldn’t buy this special bond between us, & I truly thank God for her presence in my life. I can’t overstate how much I respect her, love her, & admire her for her courage in dealing with the difficult situations in her life.

I’m glad everything has not changed, despite the obvious changes to our own respective lives. Well, almost everything anyway. This time I’ve managed to see the point of cherishing someone I respect & love from the day they arrive in my life, instead of only realizing my mistake when they’re no longer around…

At the threshold of exhaustion?

Haven't blogged for a while, & the 'official' reason that I gave to the people who asked was that I was really busy over this period. That was partly the truth, as I've been moving around quite a fair bit, entering & exiting SG & Indo before I even had the chance to warm my bed. Add the recent & impending visits of a few Melb friends, & my schedule has been fully booked out for the next month at least!

I'm not complaining about that though, coz it means that I'm either: 1) working on my pet projects OR 2) catching up with 'old' (yes, that's the 4 of u!) friends/family, 2 of the things I enjoy most in life. It's not much of a problem to resolve the time clash now, coz I always had it planned out at least 2 weeks in advance. (So peeps, if you're intending to visit me in sg next time, plz plz book me earlier!).

Work hasn't been as fun as I imagined it'd be. I had thought that by diversifying my portfolio of jobs, I'd get to learn the tricks of the trades of every industry faster, but what I didn't consider was the workload & the amount of attention I had to put in for each of these. Although I'm picking up stuffs quicker this way, I think I'll be suffering a burn-out sooner too. Leonhart the charcoal exporter is an entirely different job from Leonhart the financial planner, as is from leonhart the 'garbage collector' (& I think I'd be adding more to this list very soon =(, although some of the things I've picked up from the export business has been useful/applicable in the other 2 as well, such as the negotiation skill.

Even though none of the jobs I'm doing now requires my presence in the office 9-5, I'm starting to get exhausted, both mentally & physically. It's like being a Comm. student all over again. I only had to attend uni for max of 12 hrs a week, yet I was insomniac for better part of my uni life. Uni students would be able to testify on this statement as well, because even though we're not in the lecture hall (equivalent to the office in my working life) most of the time, our alertness is still switched on 24/7, & in my opinion this is much worse than just doing a 9-5 job in which you can just switch off after work hours. This is especially true when someone's main income is incentive-based, so the motivation to keep doing research will be there all the time.

Work aside (I think I should actually bar any posts on my work on this blog to keep it more interesting =)- , baddie & visits from friends were the 2 things that kept me sane for so long. It's been fun to play tourist in sg when Joy visited, & the semi-buffet lunch we had @ suntec was so yum! We had our plates full of prawns & mussels, & there was plenty of dessert too (we didn't even get to the ice cream bcoz we were already so full by then)! Oh yeah did I also mention that they had spinach soup for the starter, topped with nachos, and it was so, so thick & *slurp* that we went back for 2nd & 3rd helping! Top value for $$ at just $13.90/head!

Went shopping afterwards to burn some calories off our overworked stomachs, & Joy ended up with a Pentax Optio S6 @ just SGD 400 (with a free 256 MB media card as well), after 1/2 hr of intensive hokkien/singlish/mandarin haggling! I think that was a pretty good deal, given that it was retailing for SGD 599 at a bigger store we've seen @ Suntec just an hour before. Night time was spent walking along Clarke Quay and ended with a drink @ Delifrance, where we chatted for about an hr before she had to go back & jets off to dreamland coz her granny would be arriving @ 8 am in the next morning!
Aside from that, also managed to squeeze in 2 lunch appointments w/ Jel when she came back, in between trips to Batam to meet my visiting relative (more abt that later in the next post..) and meetings with potential clients. It was definitely good to catch up with a melb friend again, coz there's no such thing as a fri nite outing ala flare or daily fitness dai dee session at Cindee's, & so that was the 1st time I had a long chat with a friend. TCC had some pretty decent pasta, the best I've had in SG so far, but I'll have to disagree with your assessment of it being as good as Melb's, Jel! Coretto's salmone ravioli & Cafe qui's Pescatore mixed sauce *so, so creamy & yummy* would easily beat it hands & legs down!

All righty. Have to get back to work now (read: make calls & type emails..). More updates later when I'm back @ SG, using my new 3.5 Mbps/sec *swoosh* broadband connection! (& it costs only 45 sgd/mth!!)